Project Management

Fisher Maritime consultants are well grounded in commercial and naval ship construction and repair practices. We provide project management services for shipyard construction and conversion projects. This often requires us to be on the deck plates, which enhances our credibility in marine construction dispute resolution situations.

Sample Cases

LIMITED CHANGES GET SHIP FINISHED

A ship owner contracted with a rig fabrication yard to construct a complex, new form offshore service vessel. The project was delayed, after contract signing, by a dispute over engineering responsibilities, which was resolved by a very expensive change order in favor of the contractor. Thereafter, disputes continued to mount while production continued to slow down and project cost seemed to spiral upward.

Fisher Maritime was brought in by the owner to provide project management support to the owner's on-site project management team in order to regain control over the schedule, to bring a halt to the upward spiraling price and to minimize all further changes. Later, the parties agreed to have the vessel completed at a different facility, but the contractor had outstanding claims against the owner.

Fisher Maritime provided assistance in rebutting claims for additional compensation because of alleged additional work claimed to have been performed by the shipyard. The vessel was completed under direction of the owner's staff, and a settlement was achieved with the contractor. The head of the ship owning company, that had initially turned away a proposal by Fisher Maritime to manage the project, stated, “I wish we had brought you in from the start.”

STABILIZED RELATIONSHIPS ACHIEVE TIMELY DELIVERY

In the conversion of a large derrick barge to also be a pipe laying barge, the owner was confronted by the shipyard for delays and change orders shortly after the barge arrived at the yard. The shipyard had committed the drydock to another vessel as well, leading to delays for which the shipyard was trying to blame the owner. In addition to schedule problems, the yard also had problems with insufficient engineering resources and lack of production resources sufficient to cope with modest project growth.

With the contractual relationship deteriorating by the minute, the owner called in Fisher Maritime to provide project management support. Fisher Maritime was assigned by its client ship owner to oversee the conversion project management functions. Fisher Maritime responded immediately by sending a team to the owner's shipyard office, assessing the situation and providing assistance to the owner's staff in monitoring and controlling those aspects of the project that were troublesome.

Upon Fisher Maritime's recommendation, several aspects of the shipyard work were cancelled to enable the shipyard to timely finish the already-started tasks. The work was then cost-effectively completed at the owner's dock with several subcontractors being directed by the owner's staff. Fisher Maritime provided continuing post-project assistance to the owner in resolving some contentious issues that had been deferred to that later time for the sake of moving ahead with the construction phase of the project.